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About this project

What are you guys doing?

We just formed in June to build Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) driven game apps. We attempted to raise some project funding here but our networks were not strong enough. In any event we'ld like to thank everyone for looking and invite you to join the fun for our first AI-driven game release. Please visit our website and join our mailing list so we can notify you.

Why build games with AI in them?

We think that improving on silly games by adding artificial intelligence will make them vastly more amusing. No seriously! Our games are all made with machine intelligence components, and as we go along, the games will learn something about your behavior and performance in the game and how you use your smart device. In fact, we are looking at monitoring and adjusting for all smart device-bound sensory input during game play in the future as smart devices gain more processing power and sensory capabilities. We can already use the smart device “sensory input” to adjust the game (harder, easier, etc.) and provide other nifty learning related or otherwise amusing features. So the experience will be different with our games, and more so over time.

Also, while there is still a bit of a wait before artificially intelligent computers save the world, we think that AI based software and networks have already become very useful. Some of the games we are developing could not exist without the underlying, sometimes sophisticated, computer science. We believe that early exploitation of these technologies in games will ultimately lead to other, possibly useful, commercial applications. Useful applications from knuckleheads... Imagine that!

What else is different about your game apps?

It’s our approach to smart devices. We are thinking of all of them as game controllers and creation devices. So we have an augmented reality framework where we always try to include your personal environment in the game. These are mostly not couch sitting games and many of them suggest going outside for best results. We are going to warn people to hold onto their phones during game play. And we can even imagine knucklehead closures with hand conforming grips.

Where will the games be available?

We’re building the games for smart phone and smart pad devices so they will be available first in the Apple app store, and then a little later in the Android app store. Once we are really cooking, we may also manage to have some of them distributed on other game platforms. But right now we are focused on the Apple and Android platforms only and on delivering the first four games on iPhone and iPads and then a little later on the Android platform as well.

One day soon, we’d also like to see these games start showing up in virtual reality worlds too. The future seems open to all kinds of wild and exciting possibilities.

Who is KnuckleheadAi?

The KnuckleheadAi team is Jim Hubshman, Tuan Nguyen and Peter Hubshman.

Jimis an AI scientist with specialties in machine learning, image/signal processing, and social informatics. Originally from New York City, he lives and works in Rockville MD. In addition to his co-founding role in KnuckleheadAi, Jim does “government related work” as a software engineer and designer in security, surveillance, submarine systems, data mining, and more. He is also a mixed martial arts instructor; a certified white water kayak instructor; and was one of the founding members of Team River Runner, a nonprofit volunteer organization that teaches disabled veterans and wounded soldiers to kayak.

Tuan is a marketing and advertising specialist focused on digital media integration and consumer behavior modeling. Originally from New Jersey, he now lives and works in Boca Raton FL. In addition to his co-founding role in KnuckleheadAi, Tuan is the founder of a digital marketing firm and media buying consultancy that transition old school retail clients off print and into the digital age. "In today’s digital age, paper is totally unnecessary and reducing deforestation should be on everyone’s priority list". Tuan is also a football coach in Boca Raton’s Youth Athletic League. As a child his dream was to be a toy maker, so KnuckleheadAi is his opportunity to fulfill that dream.

Peter is a start-up business strategy and finance specialist focused on information and Internet technology. Originally from New York City, he lives and works in Deerfield Beach FL. In addition to his co-founding role in KnuckleheadAi, Peter is a partner with Tuan in a digital marketing firm; and a co-founding member of the ThreeSpaces Persona Network, a place where you can promote each of your true-life passions, and control the personal data you publish.

“The line between whether an entity is or is not a machine is getting harder and harder to define. But, clearly smart phones are machines and that is good enough for a bunch of knuckleheads!” ~ Jim Hubshman

We don’t actually believe that there is anything artificial about any entity’s intelligence. It is just a question of how much and who. The greater the complexity of an entity’s stimulus response set (and the mechanism that manages it) the more intelligent the entity. When the entity is neither animal nor vegetable, we usually call it artificial. We believe that when an entity’s intelligence is complex enough, it manifests behavior that we associate with animal life. The entity experiences that complexity as emotion, reason, and consciousness. We hope to see this level of intelligence in computers someday soon! We would love to play some small part in making that happen.

Many smart phone networks use AI tools and agents to optimize digital bandwidth traffic. Word is that Google and other advertising centric giants are using AI tools and agents to model behavior on smart phones through their smart phone apps. We haven’t found anyone using AI for knuckleheaded smart device games, so far. But we are sure of one thing. We are clearly not the only knuckleheads in the universe!

We are looking to compete in areas where AI improves the game. So these will be crowded market spots where we expect to have a competitive technological advantage. We are also looking to create novel games that no one has tried before, and expect that our AI will give us an edge in this area as well.

Yes. We have slogans and some quotes from our friends on our game ideas. And we are hoping for some great testimonials from all of you KickStarter gamers once the games are finished!

Slogans- KnuckleheadAi:
We make easy things harder...
Pet rock ideas with AI solutions...
Powered by knuckleheads and real artificial Intelligence.
We can't explain how this happened.
A different way of thinking
I get by with a little AI
Smart solutions, silly ideas
Have some fun and let your phone do the thinking.
Get a knuckleheaded grip.
Now hold on there just a minute.

Quotations:
App Shmap...
Did you really have to do that?
Why?
Really? I mean, really?
You can do that?
No. That's not possible.
You can't do that.
You’re kidding me?
You knuckleheads!
Don’t you think you need to get the parents involved in that one?
I'll buy that App…how much?

Not yet. And while we would welcome some interest, we would like to make sure that people are enjoying and downloading our games before we even think about that. That’s why Kickstarter is so important to us right now. Your donations will give us the chance for a strong start based purely on the merits of our ideas for this AI driven game company, and reaching or exceeding our Kickstarter goal would mean we can stick to our plan without losing time being distracted by business, legal and coordination efforts and expense surrounding investment capital.

The 100 games we're exploring come from an even larger list and represent the potential for several years of great fun AI driven app releases. The ones we chose to start with are easiest on the AI development scale, so we can go fast and run lean. If we had investment capital, we might reconsider our development priorities with an expanded and enhanced team.

Our goal is to establish a really seriously fun game company that uses AI in ever more clever ways, to delight and amuse and to educate. If that makes us the court jesters of artificial intelligence, then so be it. We hope it will lead us to exciting and adventurous games that use smart devices as an extension of our personal environments.

if some of our games go big, then we will definitely keep going and grow KnuckleheadAi as far as possible. That would mean more and better games, perhaps a hookup to a VR or AR focused game company and a device company, maybe a serious funding. Help us get kick-started and we’ll go as fast and as far as we possibly can!

If we hit it big, we want to affect positive social change with our wallets as well as our minds. We put in our charter, our LLC operating agreement, that we will give a minimum of 5% of all game app revenues into environment, education, and other global and local charities and causes, and another minimum 5% into open knowledge and learning programs that we intend to establish. The Open Knowledge Learning Program will be dedicated to spreading useful AI knowledge and know-how. So that’s a minimum of 10% off the top of all revenue (not profit) that comes in that we are dedicated to spreading usefully.

Our goal for the initial two apps is huge! However, we think we need to be producing 4 new games a quarter to get in there and compete. On the reasonably optimistic side, we would like to see the first 4 games hit 50-100 thousand downloads by the end of Q1-2012. We will need more than our kickstarter-funding goal to get there, so if we exceed our funding goal, and if the initial two apps were to go seriously viral, that would obviously help.

On a more practical note, we will start by marketing our own personal extended networks and with all of you at Kickstarter who like game apps. We will also create branded websites to drive awareness and work closely with our friends in affiliate marketing and advertising who have SEO traffic networks and are willing to help us out at the start. Of course, we will also hit the blogs and social nets where gamers and app hounds hang. In addition, if we have extra funding from this Kickstarter program, we will test SEM and other less freely available application promotion avenues.

Because most of the games have single and multi-player modes, and all of them have a viral component for score comparisons and game video sharing, we hope they will spread quickly through user invitations as people enjoy them. But we know we need more than a couple of games to drive our marketing.

Many of the artificial intelligence tools we will use are already open source. They are available at universities, in textbooks and research papers. We are developing and accumulating a source list for knowledge related to AI and machine learning; i/o devices that can be used with AI; etc. Our intention is to turn this accumulation into the Open Knowledge Exchange discussed earlier. However, the code for the games themselves will not be open source.

Yes, but due to a longstanding childhood spin top war dispute that has never been settled, all communication between them is now filtered through Tuan. Spin top rivalries are a serious business at that. So, until our spin top war game hits the market and they can settle their dispute fair and square, the knuckleheaded communication shall continue.

Rewards

Pledge $2 or more

Early and all subsequent releases of Storm-O-Meter. Game credit as a “Contributor”. See our Updates for further details.

Estimated delivery:Feb 2012

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Pledge $10 or more

4 backers

Early and all subsequent releases of Storm-O-Meter and Stone Face. Game credits as a “VIP Contributor”. See our Updates for further details.

Estimated delivery:Feb 2012

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Pledge $50 or more

2 backers

Early and all subsequent releases of Storm-O-Meter, Stone Face, and Look Out Keep Out. Game credits as a “Silver Contributor”. See our Updates for further details.

Estimated delivery:Feb 2012

You selected

Pledge $100 or more

1 backer

Early and all subsequent releases of Storm-O-Meter, Stone Face, Look Out Keep Out, and Backyard Bird Shooter. Game credits as a “Gold Contributor”. A KnuckleheadAi smart phone grip (so you don’t break your phone while using our apps). See our Updates for further details.

Estimated delivery:Feb 2012

You selected

Pledge $200 or more

0 backers

Early and all subsequent releases of Storm-O-Meter, Stone Face, Look Out Keep Out, and Backyard Bird Shooter. Game credits as a “Platinum Contributor”. A KnuckleheadAi smart phone grip (so you don’t break your phone while using our apps). A Custom Knucklehead T-Shirt commemorating our kick-start. See our Updates for further details.

Estimated delivery:Feb 2012

You selected

Pledge $300 or more

1 backer

Early and all subsequent releases of Storm-O-Meter, Stone Face, Look Out Keep Out, and Backyard Bird Shooter. Game credits as a “Diamond Contributor”. A KnuckleheadAi smart phone grip (so you don’t break your phone while using our apps). A Custom Knucklehead T-Shirt and baseball cap. See our Updates for further details.

Estimated delivery:Feb 2012

You selected

Pledge $1,000 or more

0 backers

Early and all subsequent releases of Storm-O-Meter, Stone Face, Look Out Keep Out, and Backyard Bird Shooter. Game credits as a “Global Contributor”. A KnuckleheadAi smart phone grip (so you don’t break your phone while using our apps). A Custom Knucklehead Bomber Jacket and Baseball Cap. See our Updates for further details.

Estimated delivery:Feb 2012

Funding period

Aug 19, 2011 - Oct 18, 2011
(60 days)

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